SensationalismSensationalism

David B. Sachsman and David W. Bulla have gathered a colourful collection of essays exploring sensationalism in nineteenth-century newspaper reporting. The contributors analyse the role of sensationalism and tell the story of both the rise of the penny press in the 1830s and the careers of specific editors and reporters dedicated to this particular journalistic style.

Divided into four sections, the first, titled "The Many Faces of Sensationalism," provides an eloquent Defense of yellow journalism, analyses the place of sensational pictures, and provides a detailed examination of the changes in reporting over a twenty-year span. The second part, "Mudslinging, Muckraking, Scandals, and Yellow Journalism," focuses on sensationalism and the American presidency as well as why journalistic muckraking came to fruition in the Progressive Era.

The third section, "Murder, Mayhem, Stunts, Hoaxes, and Disasters," features a ground-breaking discussion of the place of religion and death in nineteenth-century newspapers. The final section explains the connection between sensationalism and hatred. This is a must-read book for any historian, journalist, or person interested in American culture.

Yellow journalism grew in girth and influence in at a rapid clip in America, tracking with the rise of cheap printing and easy distribution of newspapers, tracts and broadsides. Here Sachsman (communication, U. of Tennessee at Chattanooga) and Bulla (journalism, Zayed U.) present august examples of stories in which speculation played as common a role as fact in reporting; but, they carefully note where and when the story itself was the sensation, whereas the reporting was actually fair. Contributors cover a wide variety of stories and reporting styles, including variations in the raids at Harper's Ferry and St. Albans, Vermont, changes in publishing violence in word and art, the differences between straightforward reporting and muckraking, the representation and growth of symbols in political partisanship, religion and death as represented by the 19th century newspaper, hoaxes, sex, of course, and hatred turned journalistic. Annotation ©2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
David B. Sachsman and David W. Bulla have gathered a colourful collection of essays exploring sensationalism in nineteenth-century newspaper reporting